Penguins 'create your own luck' to solve Hellebuyck, Jets

For the first two periods of the Penguins' game against the Jets Sunday at PPG Paints Arena, it seemed like Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck was going to be unbeatable.

Hellebuyck was making his second start in as many nights. And if he was feeling the effects of that workload, he didn't show it.

The Penguins were outshooting the Jets 23-16 through the first 40 minutes, but trailed the Jets 2-0. The shot differential may have been a bit misleading as to which team was controlling much of the play -- to that point, the Jets definitely had more quality chances than the Penguins had. But even when the Penguins did manage to get a quality chance on Hellebuyck, he'd commit robbery, like with this save on Evan Rodrigues on a second-period power play:

It was becoming clear that if the Penguins were going to get on the scoreboard, they weren't going to do it by beating Hellebuyck cleanly. 

When the Penguins finally did beat Hellebuyck in the third period, they did so with two fluky-looking bounces that went in their favor, paving the way for an eventual 3-2 shootout victory.

The Penguins got on the board at the 6:55 mark of the final frame in regulation. Evgeni Malkin threw an innocuous-looking puck on net that hit Kasperi Kapanen's left skate and deflected in:

"Geno just threw it at my feet, and I just tried to get a piece of it somehow," Kapanen said of the goal.

Just nine seconds later, Jeff Carter tied the game. Hellebuyck was handling the puck behind his net and turned the puck over directly to Carter, and Carter capitalized with a shot from just above the goal line:

The game had changed, and it changed quickly. The last time the Penguins had scored two goals any quicker than that was Feb. 11 2000, when Marty Straka put up two goals in seven seconds against the Oilers.

Hellebuyck was openly frustrated after the game with the nature of the goals that beat him in regulation.

"The game goes from what should be a shutout to a shootout loss. It sucks." Hellbuyck said. "The first one goes off of a skate. I made a pretty good push at it, but you can't really expect it to go off of a skate. I'm expecting a stick, and that's a good foot or two away from where I'm expecting that puck to go, which stinks. Then the second one I just had a late decision because it looked like it was going to be icing for a second. When I finally decided, my only play was to rip it behind the net. They just had a guy wide-open right there. It just seems kind of like my luck ran out."

I asked Kris Letang about his view of that sequence after the game. He agreed that luck was a factor, but he didn't seem to think that Hellebuyck's luck just ran out by chance. They made it run out with their third-period effort.

"You create your own luck," he said. "We came out with a big push in the third. Sometimes when you push, you create mistakes. It can be anyone on the ice, their goalie. They gave us a break there. I think we came out really hard, and we pushed the play and took it away from them."

It wasn't a perfect win by any means, but it didn't have to be.

"Good teams always find a way," Letang said of the win. "For this team to come back in the game, it doesn't take much. We have the talent, the skill to do it. Guys went back to work and played the right way. And we got the reward."

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Here's a look at the full shootout. Jake Guentzel and Letang were stopped on their attempts, and Sidney Crosby scored the shootout winner:

• If it were legal, Tristan Jarry should have been all three stars. He continues to be outstanding for the Penguins, and recorded 27 saves tonight and all three stops in the shootout. Dejan has more on him here. Jarry was awarded the team's "Bold Penguin" helmet after the game by the previous recipient, Mike Matheson:

Matheson said that Jarry set a new record for fist pumps after the win. That's not a stat tracked by the NHL so I'll just take his word for it.

• Jarry credited his "consistent approach" to each start as a factor in his success.

"Being able to do the same thing every gameday and having the same routine, I think that just puts you in a good mindset good place coming into the game," he said. "You know you're prepared and you know what you need to do."

• This was Letang's 900th career game, joining Crosby (1,068), Malkin (947) and Mario Lemieux (915) as the only four players in franchise history to reach the milestone.

"The chance to play with (Crosby and Malkin) for that many games, it's just been an unbelievable ride," Letang said afterward. "Winning three Cups with these guys, being part of this organization. As a kid you don't think it's going to happen. Here I am just playing with probably the best player that ever played."

I asked Kapanen afterward about Letang's ability to play at such a high level for this long, and Kapanen thinks that Letang can keep going.

"He's been playing at a high level for a long time," Kapanen said. "I think he's one of the most underrated defensemen out there. I'm really happy for him, and hopefully he plays another 900 more."

That's about 11 more seasons, until Letang is 45 years old. I wouldn't rule it out.

• Letang's career-long point streak ended at 10 games.

• Teddy Blueger was injured by a hit from Brenden Dillon midway through the first period. I have more on that here.

• Before the game, Mike Sullivan said that Zach Aston-Reese is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Louis Domingue's timeline was updated to week-to-week. I saw Domingue after the game using one of those little three-wheeled scooters to get around, with his right foot now in a boot.

• Three other forwards left the game in the first period, but all returned for the start of the second: Bryan Rust (hit in the wrist by a shot from Guentzel), Brock McGinn (shaken up by a hit in the corner), and Brian Boyle (fought after the McGinn hit, was holding his wrist on the way to the locker room).

• Here is the hit on McGinn and fight between Boyle and Nathan Beaulieu:

Those three players appeared to emerge from the incidents unscathed, but it still had the Penguins playing with a short bench for part of the first period.

"I think we were lucky enough that it happened at the end of the period, so we didn't have to struggle with that too much," Kapanen said. "But you never like seeing guys go into the dressing room, especially guys like Boyle, he has been huge for us along with Teddy and McGinn, and I think Rusty took a puck as well, so that's four right there. It's unfortunate and but they came back, they're tough guys. So it was good to see."

• Rust, Guentzel and Rodrigues each recorded five shots on goal.

• Brian Dumoulin led with five blocked shots. Nobody else had more than two.

• The power play went 0-for-4.

• The penalty kill went 0-for-1.

• I think it's funny that if a player is penalized at the end of overtime, there's no real consequence. Crosby got hit with a slashing call at the 5-minute mark that basically just pads his stats. It's pretty much The Purge. Commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including slashing, will be legal.

• The Penguins remain undefeated (4-0) in the Snoop Dogg jerseys. Those jerseys make their next appearance on Friday against the Red Wings.

• The Penguins have now won seven consecutive games at home. It's their longest home win streak since 2017-18 (11 games) and is tied for the second-longest active home win streak in the league, behind Colorado's 15-game streak.

• This was only the Penguins' fifth win all season in a game in which they did not score first. They're now 5-7-0-5 when trailing first, the 17th-best record in the league when trailing first.

• Casey DeSmith got new pads, replacing the gold set with a set that's mostly white with gold on the sides. We'll have to wait and see if that fixes things for him, I guess.

• The Penguins took a moment to remember former Islanders legend Clark Gillies during a stoppage in the second period, after Gillies passed away this week at age 67. His former Islanders teammate Bryan Trottier held up a Gillies jersey on the videoboard, and the public address announcer spoke about Gillies' involvement with the Mario Lemieux Foundation.

TAYLOR HAASE / DKPS

• There was a nice moment after the game when Crosby and Letang went up to shake the hand of referee Dean Morton, who is retiring after this season.

• Phil Bourque was back in the radio booth after missing the last two games due to a possible COVID exposure. Colby Armstrong, who was called up to the booth to fill in during those two games, was re-assigned to the radio booth's taxi squad.

• Attendance was 17,962, a few hundred short of a sellout. It definitely felt like the crowd was louder than usual.

• Enjoy this picture of Malkin's five-year-old son Nikita at the game, from Malkin's wife's Instagram:

ANNA_KASTEROVA / INSTAGRAM

• Aston-Reese posted this of his dog Carl walking in the show after the game and it's the most ridiculous thing I've seen all day:

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG PAints Arena:

1. Tristan Jarry, Penguins
2. Jeff Carter, Penguins
3. Kyle Connor, Jets

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• Forward Drew O'Connor was put on LTIR retroactive to Jan. 15. He's week-to-week with an upper-body injury.

• Forward Jason Zucker was put on IR on Thursday and is considered week-to-week. It's the same nagging lower-body injury that sidelined him before his return in Vegas.

• Goaltender Louis Domingue was put on IR after he was struck in the right foot by a puck in Thursday's morning skate. He is considered week-to-week. I saw him using a scooter and wearing a boot on Sunday.

• Forward Zach Aston-Reese is day-to-day with a lower-body injury suffered on Friday in Columbus.

• Forward Teddy Blueger is being evaluated for an undisclosed injury sustained in this game.

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen - Evgeni Malkin - Evan Rodrigues
Dominik Simon - Jeff Carter - Kasperi Kapanen
Brian Boyle - Teddy Blueger - Brock McGinn

Brian Dumoulin - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - John Marino
Mike Matheson - Chad Ruhwedel

And for Dave Lowry's Jets:

Andrew Copp - Mark Scheifele - Blake Wheeler
Kyle Connor - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Cole Perfetti
Paul Stastny - Adam Lowry - Austin Poganski
Jansen Harkins - Dominik Toninato - Kristian Vesalainen

Josh Morrissey - Nate Schmidt
Brenden Dillon - Neal Pionk
Dylan Samberg - Nathan Beaulieu

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins will have a day off on Monday. They'll be back on the ice for a morning skate Tuesday ahead of that evening's game against the Coyotes.

THE CONTENT

Visit our team page for everything.